Thanksgiving 2008: A Time To Reflect

Thanksgiving 2008: A Time to Reflect

I was just over at Ashamadia’s Blog reading the latest post called “Thanksgiving 2008: ‘Just What In The Hell Is There To Be Thankful For?“. The words written there made me stop and reflect upon the past.

In 2008 I went over the half-century mark. 50 Years isn’t really such a long time to be upon this earth, for many people have spent more time than I here, but it is long enough for any person to see how things changed. During the course of my life I have seen push button transmissions on cars, TV Shows changing from Black and White to Color, the rise of the CB Radio as a mode of communications, the rise of the PC and Video Games, the advent of the VCR, Man, the cell phone and many other forms of technology come of age (such as the Transistor Radio). During my life I recall The Cuban Missile Crisis, The Assassination of JFK, The Escalation and end of the Vietnam War, Man walking on the Moon, The Fall of Nixon, The Gas Shortages of the 70s, The Gas Shortages of the 80s, Grenada, The Iran-Iraq War, The Rise of Terrorism in Europe, The Rise of Terrorism through out the world. The WTC Bombing, 911 and more. I was born during the Eisenhower Administration and lived through JFK, LBJ, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush I, Clinton, Bush II and hopefully will see Obama (our first black president) take the helm of control. I’ve seen Gas raise from 38 cents a gallon to over $4.00 a gallon. I’ve seen a “decent” wage rise from about $4,000 a year to around $65,000 a year. I’ve seen, or lived in, the US, Europe, Central America, South America, Mexico, Canada, the mid-east and Northern Africa (to name a few places). I’ve seen the decline of social mores and mutual respect. I’ve seen the age of Aquarius turn into the age of “Me First”. Life has been interesting, to say the least.

This Thanksgiving I can be thankful for my family and friends around the world, even those I don’t speak to as often as I should or would like. I can be thankful for living in a country where my basic rights are in tact, despite the occasional lapse. The US has been pretty good to me overall, as it has been to most others of many different races or creeds. Life is not perfect here in the states, but it sure isn’t perfect anywhere else either. The saying of “The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence” has always applied to America and other countries. We live here and see it’s faults daily, but we only really catch glimpses of how others live throughout the world… they don’t have it so easy either, folks.

Most of all I think I am thankful for living in a world where the majority of people really wants to make things better. They sometimes go about achieving that goal wrong, or their vision of a better world may be different than yours or mine… but not many wants to live in a world worse than they are living in now.

This Thanksgiving season take the time to reflect upon how good we actually have it, even though we may live in a daily world of problems. Take the time to think about how you contributed to the problems of today… and how you can help make it better for next year. Stop pushing the entire blame on everyone and everything else, remember if everyone makes a small contribution to improving things then like the snowball rolling downhill - those small things will grow into something big.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.